So I bought this bag of 50 random bargain cds and now I’m going to review every last one of them. This group of 8 is just brutal.

CD 7/50: Brian Mcknight – Anytime (1997)

Brian Mcknight sold 2 million copies of this album, I don’t think I’ve heard any songs from this before. I’ve heard of Mcknight and Mase who guests on the biggest single here “You Should Be Mine.” This is the R&B I spoke of in my preview article for this series. It’s not a genre I love so this is a little tough. There’s lots of slow jams here, lots of songs to get your lady in the mood… maybe. It probably does the job better than Metallica anyway. This album isn’t something I’ll ever listen to again, time to move on.

CD 8/50: Ashlee Simpson – Bittersweet World (2008)

I saw Ashlee Simpson once at a Kings of Leon show. I also was watching the Saturday Night Live where she messed up lip synching. That about flushes out my opinions on Ashlee Simpson. This album is her 3rd and it was the beginning of the end for her it looks like. She burst onto the scene and was huge for a bit, then she faded away and went into witness relocation or something. The biggest single from this album “…Outta My Head (Ay Ya Ya)” sounds like that song “Hey Mickey you’re so fine” updated for a different generation. The only problem is that this song isn’t as cute or good or probably not originally about a kitty like the aforementioned 80s song. I’ve gotten off subject, where was I? Oh yes, I don’t like this pop crap, time to move on.

CD 9/50: Terri Clark – Fearless (2000)

I knew I’d get to some country in here eventually. This Terri Clark album led to a rash of country cds out of the bag that I hope ends soon. You’ll see further down the page that I’m listening to a lot of country for this article. The biggest single here appears to be “A Little Gasoline” and I don’t remember but it isn’t bad. It is definitely that late 90s/early 2000s radio country sound. Clark’s voice has plenty of twang and the lyrics aren’t terrible, it just sounds like it came out of the Nashville “machine.” It’s worth noting that Clark’s star has faded in the US but she is actually still charting in Canada where she is from.

CD 10/50: Heart – Magazine (1978)

Heart is a decent band but it looks like this is one of their bad albums. Ironically from the same year (1978) as that Dire Straits cd I pulled in the last batch, “Magazine” critically doesn’t get a lot of credit and didn’t do well on the charts. The only song that charted was the title track “Magazine” but you also get a blues medley here and a cover of the excellent Badfinger song “Without You.” This album still managed to move over a million copies in the US likely because of the success Heart had already achieved. With rockers like “Devil Delight” as well this misstep in Heart’s discography is still the best cd of this batch of bargain grab bag discs.

CD 11/50: Brooks & Dunn – If You See Her (1998)

Brooks & Dunn are what I think of when I think about riding the school bus in high school. The duo was littered all over country radio for many many years. This album was well into their career and still spawned three #1 country songs. The biggest being “If You See Him/If You See Her” with the guest vocal talents of Reba McEntire. “How Long Gone” is another radio standard that still gets play. I’d go as far as to say this album really encompasses 90s radio country all together. Decent songwriting and that standard “Nashville” production creates some of the most radio friendly stuff you can fine.

CD 12/50: Trisha Yearwood – Trisha Yearwood (1991)

Here’s another bus cd… “She’s In Love With The Boy” is a song I’ve heard over and over. The song “That’s What I Like About You” is a country romp that is also a fun listen and another of the four top 10 country singles off this record. This cd hits a weird vein of my childhood that prevents me from hating it. I’m not saying I’m jamming out to it often but I don’t hate it. Unfortunately, this cd looks like someone tried to hold it under water to drown it. The water damage is brutal, the cd was not included in the insurance claim though so it plays fine.

CD 13/50: Whhopi – Eddie (the soundtrack) (1996)

Whoopi must have been in this terrible movie. This cd represents my biggest fear in pulling discs out of the brown paper bag. A bad soundtrack from a bad movie featuring music from a genre I don’t care for. If you’re curious the notable artists here are Coolio, Dru Hill and House of Pain. The Coolio song was a single and isn’t terrible, it has a funk feel to it and I can stand it. The other hit song by Dru Hill isn’t really good at all. The hodgepodge of other songs just aren’t interesting from someone who doesn’t listen to contemporary R&B.

CD 14/50: John Michael Montgomery – Leave A Mark (1998)

Another great 90s country radio name is John Michael Montgomery. While this isn’t his most popular album it did have some hits. The most notable being “Cover You In Kisses” which is another Garth Brooks-sounding generic twangy number. I don’t know that any of the songs here are particularly bad but they just aren’t interesting. Another radio hit “Hold On To Me” is really boring and bad and most other songs mostly follow suit. Montgomery is another pop country performer that doesn’t write much of his own music and who owe’s his career to promoters and label push.

Please let the next group be a little less shitty. I’m not near as excited about this project anymore.